The South Africans were widely tipped to have too much firepower for the All Blacks to handle in the opening Test in Johannesburg a week ago, but it was Dave Rennie’s visitors who outscored the hosts by five tries to one to run out comfortable 33-16 winners at Ellis Park.
The defeat means the Springboks cannot afford to lose another Test in the four-match series if they are to win it outright, and Kolisi feels prior experience of win-or-go-home games will aid his troops at DHL Stadium.
Early in Rassie Erasmus’ tenure, the Boks became the first team in history to win the Rugby World Cup after losing a game in the pool stages when they were beaten by New Zealand in Yokohama on their way to lifting the 2019 title. They would go on to repeat that feat after falling to Ireland in Paris in the group stage of the 2023 edition. Those early losses effectively meant the Boks were in must-win territory before their respective knockout campaigns had even begun.
Sandwiched between those titles was the 2021 British and Irish Lions series, which the Springboks bounced back to win 2-1 after losing the first Test in Cape Town.
“The nice thing is it’s not just me,” Kolisi told reporters on Friday. “We've all been in this position before, with the Lions and the World Cup, losing the first game.
“We know how to handle the situation, with the mind off the field as well, but what's most important is actually on the field itself. We need to go and play and execute.
“We’re lucky to have such experience, but experience means nothing if you don't learn from the mistakes that you made the week before.”
History shows the Springboks have traditionally managed to learn from their mistakes. Not since 2022 have they lost back-to-back Tests, while consecutive defeats to New Zealand and Argentina in the 2015 Rugby Championship marks the last time the current world champions lost two on the bounce on home soil.
Part of the secret, says Kolisi, is “direct and honest” conversations between himself and his team-mates away from their sessions with the coaches.
“A lot of us have played with each other for quite a bit,” Kolisi said. “I think me and Pieter-Steph (Du Toit), it will be 45 games together tomorrow.
“So those conversations definitely do happen, and they happen outside the field when we're going for dinner, because basically our mind is rugby when we're doing rugby stuff.
“It's a little bit easier because we are direct with one another, and we are honest with one another on the field itself as well.
“That experience helps a lot; the fact that we know we've been here before. We can draw strength from that, and I think that's really important.
“Those conversations are actually the most important ones. The coaching staff, they give us all the plans, but we have to buy into it and believe in it, and then find other ways to make it better as well.”
‘Mind games not my job’
The coaching staff themselves have had plenty to keep them busy this week. An injury suffered by Handre Pollard in training has necessitated the recall of Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu at fly-half, while Cheslin Kolbe was a surprise late inclusion to the matchday squad after initially not being named in Monday’s team announcement.
With Rassie Erasmus’ penchant for mind games always at the fore, there were whispers that Erasmus’ early team selection - and subsequent changes - were designed to throw off their opponents’ preparation.
As it was, Rennie was also accused of playing mind games when he revealed to the media on Thursday that he had approached World Rugby for clarity on the Springboks’ scrum; the most potent weapon by some distance.
The Boks were dominant in that area in the opening exchanges of the first Test, but a crucial decision went against them on their opponents’ line in the second half, which changed the momentum of the match. Even with that moral victory in the bank, Rennie said he wanted to iron out his side's "issues" with the game's governing body.
“We have spoken to World Rugby around a couple of issues from our point of view,” Rennie said. “Our scrum will be a lot better.”
Rennie’s comments reveal the extent of the pressure both camps feel with the series on the line, but South Africa’s assistant coach Mzwandile Stick denied that any of his side’s late changes were with the All Blacks in mind.
“I’m not really a mind-games person,” Stick said after Friday’s captain’s run.
“My job as assistant coach is to make sure that the players are prepared to execute between the four lines. When it comes to mind games, I don’t think I’m very good at that.
“The biggest thing for me is that we always just want to do our best, to make sure we represent our country very well.
"We know we were disappointed last week with the way the result went, so we will do everything in our power to turn things around and then we’ll take it from there.
“My job is just to coach, not to play mind games.”